Weekly graphic. [volume] (Kirksville, Adair Co., Missouri) 1880-1949, 1887-10-14

educational Department.
Teachers wanted.


teaching of that venerable man. I
think it was he who said, that worth
more than all the noble college build
ings in the country, would be O plain
wooden bench with Mark Hopkins at
one end of it if he could sit at the
other. l have always since thought
Of that ideal wooden bench when I
have been shown fine school build
ings adorned with pictures and statues
and furnished with every modern con-
venience.
Are we not sometimes in danger Of
forgetting, in orr desire for fine school
houses, the fact that, after all, il is the
teachers inside of the buildings and
not the buildings themselves that make
the school? Emerson says somewhere,
that it does not make so much differ
ence what child learns, as Of whom
he learns it. This is only his way of
stating the truth, that it is the person.
atty of the teacher that will make its
mark on the childs mind. After ali
the lessons have been recited and the
school doors have been left for the
last time, the effect that remains, the
last result which the pupil holds over
from his school, will be the view of
life, the way of thinking, that he has
gained from his teachers.
That is the one permanent thing, after
all. This is only another way of say
ing that the end of all true teaching is
the training of the mind, and not the
acquisition of facts. If it were the lat
ter the man who knew the most would
be the best teacher. But how often
the only memory which man retains
OF his school Nys under one of these
wise men, is that of painful effort to
memorize certain facts, or that
of tricks played to deceive; and
all this finally fades out, leaving moth
ing as residuum
But with the other kind of teacher
an ineffaceable mark has been left on
the character of the pupil. No matter
how wise he may grow, till he may
have far outstripped his old instructor
in many departments of knowledge. he
is always forced to recognize with a
tender grateful thought, the touch of
| the creative hand which shaped his
boyish thinking-the infexible will
which went down before no obstacle,
but bent like swaying reed before
| any question of justice and right; the
reverent search for truth, the whole
truth and nothing but the truth; which
led the way even in simple arithmeti-
cal example; the undoubting faith and
trust to which every, lesson in natural
science led up; the patient repetitions,
the glad welcomings of the success of
the student.
1t is not the Bible reading in the
morning that he remembers now. 1t
is the way in which the reading was
done, and, more than all, it is the
daily life going in and out among the
children that he remembers, and for
which he is grateful.
Such are the feelings with which the
pupils of Mark Hopkins thought
and think of him. Such are the
feelings with which the real creative
teacher is sure to be looked back upon
by those who were his pupils
A teacher is an artist in the highest
sense. And far more fortunate is he
than all other artists in the material
with which he works. The Greek
sculptor might embody his highest
idea OF grandeur in marble, and the
Roman conquerors dash tito pieces, or,
at any rate what the Romans spared, |
Time will not spare. The painter may
put his noblest thoughts ON canvas. |
and hang the picture in the hottest |
place behind and above the altar in the |
most sacred building, it may be safe
from invaders, but the smoke from the |
very incense and candles which are
burned before it will throw a veil over
its beauty, and it viii fade and grow
1ndistinct as the years go by. The |
poets words are liable to be DESTROYED. |
Only the teacher works ON indestruct-
ible material. His carving cannot be sub |
ject to decay; the picture that he paints |
no smoke nor dust can injure; the |
poems that he writes sing on forever,
not Only in the hearts that he has di-
rectly spoken to, but in thousands of |
others that he viii never know. He
only may work out of reach of dis
couragement and fear high above all
anxiety and foreboding. 1t is only in
measure as the sculptor, painter, poet
are teachers, that they may hope to
share his immunity from loss.
To be real teacher is to SOW imper-
ishable seed on the ground that is
quick with life, and under the sunlight
and rain that never fail. And the fruit
is abundant-a thousand fold.
When such teacher as Mark Hop
kins dies, or when one of his grateful
pupils dies; then we recognize the
truth of these words. 1t is not only
and it is not first of all college gradu-
ates that we want for teachers in our
public schools: it is real men and
women that we want, first of all; true
i